Your Attention Is the Battlefield

There was a time when people carried books the way we now carry phones.

Worn spines. Dog-eared pages. Margins filled with notes only they could understand. A book on the nightstand. A book in the bag. A book open on the kitchen table while dinner simmered.

Now we carry glowing rectangles.

And we scroll.

I am not judging. I am confessing.

We wake up and reach for our phones before our feet even hit the ground. Before water. Before light. Before breath. We let headlines and notifications pour straight into a brain that has not even had a chance to remember its own name yet.

Think about that.

Before coffee, before prayer, before thought, we ingest the world.

And then we wonder why our nervous systems are fried.

There is real cognitive damage happening. Not dramatic. Not overnight. But steady. Slow erosion.

We are training our brains to expect novelty every few seconds. Swipe. Scroll. Tap. Hit. Reward. Swipe again.

Dopamine on demand.

The prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for focus, reasoning, impulse control, gets weaker when it is never asked to work. Deep reading strengthens neural pathways tied to empathy, memory, and sustained attention. Scrolling does not.

Reading a 300-page book requires patience. It requires sitting inside someone else’s mind for hours. It asks you to tolerate boredom. To wrestle with ideas. To hold multiple concepts at once.

A feed asks nothing of you.

It gives you opinions pre-chewed. Narratives pre-packaged. Outrage pre-ignited.

You do not have to think deeply. You only have to react.

And reaction is not transformation.

Many people today are no longer cognitively equipped to sit and read something longer than a few paragraphs. Not because they are unintelligent. But because they have trained their brains not to.

It is like trying to run a marathon when you have not walked around the block in years.

I notice it in myself. I will sit down with a book and after three pages, my hand twitches for my phone. As if my brain is whispering, This is too slow. Where is the stimulation?

That whisper is not wisdom. It is addiction.

Reading is not just a hobby. It is resistance.

It is choosing depth in a world that rewards speed.

It is choosing formation over information.

It is saying, I will build my mind on something thicker than trending topics.

Self-awareness and personal growth are billion-dollar industries. Courses. Retreats. Masterclasses. Coaching programs. Supplements. Biohacking gadgets. The list goes on.

But how many people actually use what they pay for?

Do you treat books like entertainment, or like investment?

I treat them like preventative medicine.

Each book changes me. Some gently. Some like a punch to the ribs.

Every written word I sit with long enough to digest becomes a mirror. It asks me questions I would not have thought to ask myself.

One of the biggest challenges most people have is adapting to change. We want transformation. We talk about it endlessly. But when transformation begins to dismantle comfort, we resist it.

Transformation happens whether we cooperate or not.

The question is this: are you moving with the direction of your soul, or are you being shaped by the constant drip of propaganda, fear-mongering, and outrage cycles designed to keep you small and reactive?

I know many of my followers are not fans of Trump. This is not a political endorsement. It is an observation about reinvention.

Look at the man’s life. Love him or hate him, he has reinvented himself repeatedly. Businessman. Bankrupt. Comeback. Television personality. President. Public enemy. Candidate again. He shifts. He recalibrates. He adapts.

That kind of reinvention requires a willingness to endure public opinion and private failure.

I struggle with reinvention.

Not the idea of it. The execution of it.

I used to call it growth. Now I call it shedding.

And shedding hurts.

Books help me shed.

Here is what is on my 2026 reading list and why.

• Upgrade Your Sex Life by Douglas Weiss

Intimacy is under attack in modern culture. Pornography. Distraction. Emotional disconnection. This book addresses sexual health from a psychological and spiritual lens. Not just mechanics, but meaning. For a generation confused about desire and discipline, this feels essential.

• The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin

Mastery in a distracted world is rare. Waitzkin breaks down how to think, train, and adapt at elite levels. This is not just about chess or martial arts. It is about how to learn deeply and consistently. In an era of shortcuts, I want the long game.

• The Body Teaches the Soul by Justin Whitmel Earley

We live from the neck up. This book calls us back into embodied faith and daily habits that shape who we become. As someone who works in trauma and somatic healing, I believe our bodies are speaking constantly. We have just forgotten how to listen.

• The Lie About Love by Zen Prem

Modern love is tangled in fantasy and projection. This book questions the romantic narratives we have swallowed whole. In a world obsessed with chemistry and compatibility, I am more interested in truth and conscious partnership.

• The Dangerous Gentleman by Victor Marx

Strength and virtue are not opposites. This book challenges men to be both capable and controlled. In a time where masculinity is either demonized or distorted, this conversation matters deeply.

• The Black Book of Power by Stan Taylor

Power is not a dirty word. It is misunderstood. This book examines influence, authority, and responsibility. If you are going to lead, you must understand power without being consumed by it.

• The Biblio Diet by Jordan Rubin and Dr. Josh Axe

What you consume mentally matters as much as what you consume physically. This book connects scripture, nutrition, and holistic health. I see reading itself as part of this diet. What are you feeding your mind daily?

• Anxiety Rx by Russell Kennedy, MD

Anxiety is epidemic. Kennedy addresses it through body-based awareness rather than endless cognitive loops. We cannot think our way out of nervous system dysregulation. This is practical medicine for modern minds.

• Your Wish Is Your Command by Kevin Trudeau

Manifestation has become trendy, but few understand the mechanics behind belief and subconscious programming. This book dives into the power of suggestion and mental conditioning. Dangerous if misused. Powerful if understood.

• Spirit Hacking by Shaman Durek

I just finished this one. And man, it was good. It speaks to reclaiming your spiritual authority in a world that constantly tells you who you are. It challenges victimhood. It invites sovereignty. It is not light reading. It is confronting.

Do you see the pattern?

Sexual health. Learning. Embodiment. Love. Masculinity. Power. Nutrition. Anxiety. Manifestation. Spiritual authority.

These are not random topics.

They are pillars.

We are living in a time where attention spans are shrinking, marriages are crumbling, anxiety is soaring, and identity is confused.

And we think the solution is more scrolling.

It is not.

Reading stretches your capacity.

It trains your brain to tolerate complexity. It forces you to sit with nuance. It slows you down long enough to consider that you might be wrong.

Most people do not fear change itself. They fear the identity death that comes with it.

Books escort you through identity deaths gently.

They allow you to rehearse transformation in private before living it publicly.

If you want to reinvent yourself, you must expose yourself to new frameworks.

You cannot think new thoughts with old inputs.

So ask yourself.

What are you reading?

Who is shaping your worldview?

Is it a long-form argument written by someone who labored over their ideas for years?

Or is it a 15-second clip designed to trigger you?

I am not anti-technology. I run businesses online. I write on platforms built by algorithms.

But I refuse to let my brain be owned by them.

Reading is discipline.

It is humility.

It is defiance.

It is saying, I will build depth in a shallow age.

Every time I finish a book, I am not the same woman who started it.

Sometimes the change is subtle. A shift in language. A softening in opinion.

Sometimes it is seismic. A decision made. A relationship re-evaluated. A habit broken.

Transformation will happen to you whether you cooperate or not.

You can be shaped by outrage cycles and fear narratives.

Or you can shape yourself through intentional inputs.

I am choosing the latter.

Not because it is easy.

But because it is necessary.

And if you find yourself restless.

Anxious.

Disconnected.

Quick to react.

Slow to think.

Maybe do something radical.

Leave your phone on the nightstand tomorrow morning.

Make your coffee first.

Open a book.

Let your brain remember what depth feels like.

It might be the most rebellious thing you do all year.

If this musing resonated with you…

I’ve shared part of my 2026 reading list above, and I would genuinely love for you to read along with me this year. Growth is always richer when we are learning in community.

And if you’d like to support this author, don’t forget about my own published works as well. Sober Sex, The Voice That Made You, Empowered but Empty, and my latest release, Meta Prayers, are all available now. Each one carries the same intention you felt here — depth, honesty, and transformation.

Thank you for reading. Truly.

As always loving and praying for you from here,

Rene Schooler

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This post was previously published on medium.com.